Monday, February 05, 2007

Apple, Beatles Reach Deal Over Use of Trademark - WSJ.com

I look forward to seeing Apple's eventual financial reporting with details on this deal -- I suspect it involved a major cashectomy and/or other types of barter/etc., e.g., Apple Corps Ltd. getting higher margins on iTunes downloads for a fixed time period.

Apple Inc. and the Beatles have settled their latest row involving the iPod and Macintosh maker's use of an apple in its logo.

Under a new deal that replaces one reached in 1991, Apple will own all of the trademarks related to "Apple" and license some of those back to Apple Corps Ltd., the Beatles' record label. The trademark lawsuit between the companies will be withdrawn. Terms of the settlement are confidential.

On a personal level: I'm not particulary concerned about the Beatles catalog being available via iTunes (or another music service) since I've replaced my Beatles/McCartney/Lennon/Harrison albums with CDs. I would like to have the take of "Let It Be" from the original (Phil Spector-mangled) album, as that version has a great guitar (Lennon, I've always assumed) piece, but otherwise I don't anticipate downloading much music in this context.